I delivered a Klingon

The one word I would never be able to use when referring to my current position is dull. When a new patient rolls in at 2 or 3 AM, I am almost always greeted with an entertaining story. This morning the entertainment happened to be the fact that the partner of my new patient believed himself to be part Klingon. For those of you would are non-Trekkies out there, the Klingons were often the bad guys on Star Trek.

This part of the social history became apparent when the admitting nurse ask the patient what language she spoke. If you have been reading along, you will know many of my patients do not speak English as their first language. In fact, many do not speck English at all. So, in answering the language question, the patient stated she spoke, "English, French, and a little bit of Klingon."

Well, not to be out done, the nurse, who has a great sense of humor, clucked her tongue twice, and said, "So do I honey, so do I."

Later, talking to the dad I learned he had many roles (or personalities) and Klingon was only one of them. I think he had been with Arthur at the round table, and with Lawrence in Arabia. I am not sure where we were this morning but I was very hopeful it was in a labor and delivery unit somewhere around the year 2010 on my small spot of the planet Earth.

Everyone did just fine and a beautiful baby was the result. The residents did waste some time on the Internet where there is a translation site. Several of the staff now know how to say, "live long and prosper" in Klingon. Of course these are the people who's ears are slightly pointed and can separate their middle and ring finger of their raised right hand.